If Deepak Chopra is an excellent Chief Executive Officer for Canada Post, he is not as excellent at appearing as such in public. His claim that some Canadian senior citizens who currently enjoy door-to-door mail service actually envy the exercise their friends get traipsing to and from their local superboxes seems highly dubious. But even if it were true, someone in PR should have locked him in the executive bathroom until he promised not to say it. And over the holidays, in the aftermath of the southern Ontario ice storm, when the Crown Corporation found itself unable to perform its core function — i.e., delivering things to people — it didn’t tell anyone about it and Mr. Chopra was unavailable to explain it.

“We were so caught up in making sure that we got it right and to do it fast, we missed a very critical step and that was to communicate with those whose service was impacted,” Mr. Chopra finally said after days of silence.

If I were a fan of Canada Post, such a statement would fill me with dread. But I’m not a fan of Canada Post, and I actually have some bemused sympathy for Mr. Chopra. As discreditable as Canada Post’s silence was, in fact there is a very easy way to tell if you’re not receiving any mail. Just ask yourself: “Did I receive any mail?” If the answer is no, then you’re not receiving any mail. It’s not totally clear to me how confirmation from the corporation itself — Yes! You have not received any mail! — would have helped.

Moreover, it is very difficult for a delivery company to deliver things when the people it employs to deliver things don’t show up to work. The Canadian Union of Postal Workers could have argued it was too icily treacherous for its members to be out and about. Instead it argued the corporation has too few casual workers on hand to compensate for mass absenteeism — which may well be true, but which hardly bolsters its members’ or the corporation’s moral claim to a monopoly on delivering our important bills and documents.

“My Quebec notary foolishly thought that Canada Post was the safest way to send key legal documents relating to my mother, who is in a hospital in Montreal,” one resident of Thornhill, Ont., where some didn’t get their mail for two weeks, told the Toronto Star. He and his notary have presumably learned a valuable lesson, and they’re not alone.

Star columnist Heather Mallick, who was nearly hysterical last month at the prospect of Canada Post cutting home delivery, seems now to have abandoned the company to the wolves. “I’ve onlined every bill I can,” she wrote this week. (She says she did so at the suggestion of a Canada Post customer service rep, whom Mr. Chopra is presumably trying to track down). “My payments for work in other countries have been direct-deposited to my bank. … I’m reading magazines online only.”

Well, there you go. Was that so hard? Having the means to be billed electronically, who would chooseto be billed on paper? Who would chooseto get a cheque as opposed to a direct deposit? Canada Post’s dire straits may be hastening these developments, but at least they’re positive developments.

There is no magic to Canada Post. There are other ways to deliver what things need delivering than to run a publicly owned corporation with lettermail monopoly. And you needn’t even look abroad to see it. The Globe and Mail recently sent its London correspondent, Mark MacKinnon, his press credentials for the Sochi Olympics via Canada Post. When he received them, he reported this week, he found the package had been opened and inspected by the United States Department of Homeland Security.

What’s Uncle Sam doing rooting around in Canadians’ mail, you might ask? Well, before Mr. MacKinnon’s documents took off for England, they took off for Memphis. Because Canada Post paid FedEx, a publicly traded company with a current market capitalization of $44-billion, to deliver it to England. There’s nothing wrong with that, commercially at least. It just goes to show: It’s a big world out there, and the mail isn’t what it used to be. It’s time to stop moaning about it and come up with something better suited to modern times.

Almost Done!

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.

Postmedia wants to improve your reading experience as well as share the best deals and promotions from our advertisers with you. The information below will be used to optimize the content and make ads across the network more relevant to you. You can always change the information you share with us by editing your profile.

By clicking "Create Account", I hearby grant permission to Postmedia to use my account information to create my account.

I also accept and agree to be bound by Postmedia's Terms and Conditions with respect to my use of the Site and I have read and understand Postmedia's Privacy Statement. I consent to the collection, use, maintenance, and disclosure of my information in accordance with the Postmedia's Privacy Policy.